stutare

Forms

stutare (first-person singular present stùto, first-person singular past historic stutài, past participle stutàto, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old Italian forms filed by the TLIO under Old Italian astutare include Old Italian stutar, Old Italian stutari and the northern Old Italian studà.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *extūtāre, formed from ex- with intensive force and Latin tūtārī (“to protect; to ward off”).^[3][4][1] Zingarelli and Treccani give the simple verb as tūtāre, a variant of the classical deponent that came to mean “to put out”.^[5][6] Wiktionary suggests that the prefix was taken over from exstinguō (“to extinguish”).^[1]

The same Vulgar Latin verb survives as Sicilian astutari, Venetian stuar, Sardinian istudare and Dalmatian stotuor.^[7][3] The simple verb gave French tuer (“to kill”) and Catalan tudar (“to destroy”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO files the verb under astutare, which it first finds in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur of the last quarter of the 12th century, in a figurative poetic use.^[2] Tuscan texts have it from Giacomo da Lentini (c. 1230–1250) and Brunetto Latini.^[2] The basic sense was “to put out (a flame)”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian poets used the verb mostly in the image of quenching the flames of love or desire.^[8] Brunetto Latini used it for calming a quarrel, and Jacopone for killing.^[3][2] Boccaccio advises putting out a fire before it grows: anzi che più s'accenda il fuoco... pensate di stutarlo (“before the fire flares up further… think of putting it out”).^[4][9]

The word was used in Tuscany, Lazio and Campania, but today it lives on mainly in the dialects, such as Venetian stuàr and Sicilian astutari.^[3][6]

Timeline

• Last quarter of the 12th century – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur has the verb (TLIO, under astutare).^[2]
• c. 1230–1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses it in a love poem.^[2][8]
• c. 1260–1261 – Brunetto Latini's Rettorica uses it for calming a dispute.^[2][3]
• c. 1336 – The sense “to put out” is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (archaic or regional) To extinguish, put out (a fire or a light).^[4][10][5]
2. (archaic) To kill.^[4][3]

Related words

• attutare
• tutela
• Sicilian astutari

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3664
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 435
9. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
10. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse